and calm, which lends in its turn a new meaning to common things. And, in the second place, Wordsworth's intellectual paganism threw him back upon primitive humanity. This, apart from its democratic aspect, is the key to his dramatis personæ,-to the exaltation of the illiterate rustic in the Poet's Epitaph; to the rights of Betty Foy in the stanzas called by her name; to the many heroes of humble birth and wit. This too, from a scarcely different point of view, apart from its likeness to Platonic speculations, is Wordsworth's philosophy of the child. A child, in his early years, lives through the childhood of the race; and Wordsworth, accordingly, went to the nursery for the relations of nature and man. How he intellectualised these childish beliefs; how, in the white flame of abstract thought, the child's cosmogony of fairyland went the way of pagan polytheism, I have already tried to show. But as Wordsworth's reaction to primitive life for the experimental examples of his teaching was the correlative of the democratic idea, so, in the social sphere, Wordsworth's protection of childish imaginings and make-believe directly corresponded to the new care for children's education and happiness, which has received such manysided impulse during the present generation. From any point of view, Wordsworth's poetry was set in the lines of enlightened progress and humanity.

In this imperfect summary, I have drawn your attention to three aspects of my subject, to Wordsworth as teacher, Wordsworth as poet, Wordsworth as priest. This was the consciously laborious life which he 'reared on the basis of his human one.' Time has justified his labours. More and more, as life grows fuller, and thought more difficult, men turn to Wordsworth in the pauses of the building for

the reading of the design. As one to whom the prophet's

inspiration had come,

So did he speak :

The words he uttered shall not pass away
Dispersed, like music that the wind takes up
By snatches, and lets fall, to be forgotten;
No-they sank into me, the bounteous gift
Of one whom time and nature had made wise,
Gracing his doctrine with authority
Which hostile spirits silently allow;
Of one accustomed to desires that feed
On fruitage gathered from the tree of life;
To hopes on knowledge and experience built;
Of one in whom persuasion and belief
Had ripened into faith, and faith become
A passionate intuition; whence the soul,
Though bound to earth by ties of pity and love
From all injurious servitude was free.

Excursion, iv. 1282.

It is to this ordered freedom that Wordsworth's readers finally recur.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND DATES

(In volumes of Essays or Studies, containing one or more on Wordsworth, nearer paginal references are omitted.)

1770. April 7. William Wordsworth, born at Cockermouth. He was the second of five children, born to John Wordsworth, law-agent to Lord Lonsdale, and to Anne, his wife, daughter of Christopher Cookson, mercer, of Penrith.

1772. October 21. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born at Ottery St Mary,

Devon.

1778. Mrs (Anne) Wordsworth died. Cf. Prelude II., 232.

William goes to Hawkshead Grammar School, where he boards in Dame Tyson's Cottage.

1783. John Wordsworth, father of the poet, died.

1787. The poet goes up to St John's College, Cambridge.

1790. August. The poet on the Continent with Robert Jones.

1791. January. The poet graduated (B.A.) at Cambridge.

November. Wordsworth in France, to spend the winter at Orleans and Blois.

1792. October. Wordsworth in Paris.

December. He is recalled to London by want of funds.

1793. January. AN EVENING WALK. An Epistle in verse. Addressed to a young lady, from the Lakes in the North of England. By W. Wordsworth, B.A., of St John's, Cambridge. London, J. Johnson. 4to.

January. DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. In verse. Taken during a
Pedestrian Tour in the Italian, Grison, Swiss and Savoyard Alps.
By W. Wordsworth, B.A., of St John's, Cambridge. London,
J. Johnson. 4to. This volume was dedicated to the Rev.
Robert Jones.

STRICTURES ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE BRITISH
CONSTITUTION, as written in 1793 in an Appendix to a Sermon
preached before the Stewards of the Westminster Dispensary, at
their Anniversary Meeting, Charlotte Street Chapel, April, 1785.
By R. Watson, D.D., Lord Bishop of Llandaff. London, T.
Cadell, and Loughborough, Adams, jun. Shortly after the
appearance of this pamphlet, Wordsworth wrote-but did not
publish-

A LETTER TO THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF, on the Extraordinary Avowal of his Political Principles, Contained in the Appendix to his Late Šermon. By a Republican.

1794. July 28. Robespierre was guillotined. Wordsworth thought of going to London, as a journalist, but stayed in Penrith to nurse Raisley Calvert.

1795. January. Raisley Calvert died, and left Wordsworth £900. William and Dorothy Wordsworth settled at Racedown, Crewkerne,

Here Wordsworth and Coleridge

Dorsetshire, in the autumn.

met for the first time.

1797. June. Coleridge stayed with the Wordsworths at Racedown. July. The Wordsworths moved to Alfoxden, near Netherstowey, Somerset, where S. T. Coleridge was living at this time.

1798. June 26. The Wordsworths left Alfoxden and travelled about in Northern England.

September 16. Coleridge and the Wordsworths left Yarmouth for
Hamburg, in order to spend the winter in Germany.

"

LYRICAL BALLADS, with a few other poems. Bristol, Joseph Cottle; London, J. and A. Arch. 12mo. The volume was anonymous, and contained four poems by Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere," "The Foster-mother's Tale,' The Nightingale," and "The Dungeon."

1799. Review of Lyrical Ballads in Monthly Review.

December 21. William and Dorothy Wordsworth settled at Dove
Cottage, Grasmere.

1801. LYRICAL BALLADS, with other Poems.

In two volumes. By W. Wordsworth. London, T. N. Longman, 1800. 12mo. Vol. I. was a second edition of the 1798 publication, with Coleridge's "Love" added. It also contained Wordsworth's Preface, subsequently extended.

1802. October 4. William Wordsworth was married to Mary Hutchinson, in Brompton, Yorkshire.

LYRICAL BALLADS, with Pastoral and other Poems. In two volumes. By W. Wordsworth. (Vol. I. is a third, and vol. II. a second edition.) London, Longman & Rees.

1803. June 18. John Wordsworth, the poet's eldest son, born.

September 17. Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott met for the first time at Lasswade, in the Highlands.

1804. August 16. Dorothy (Dora), the poet's second child, born. 1805. February. Captain John Wordsworth, the poet's youngest and favourite brother, is drowned in command of his ship, the Earl of Abergavenny, East India Service.

Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme published in 2 volumes a fourth (Vol. II., third) edition of the Lyrical Ballads.

1806. June 16. Thomas Wordsworth, the poet's third child, born.

The Wordsworths wintered at Coleorton, Leicestershire, in the neighbourhood of Sir George Beaumont.

1807. POEMS, in two volumes. By William Wordsworth, Author of the Lyrical Ballads. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme.

12mo.

August. Review of Poems by Lord Byron in Monthly Literary
Recreations.

October. Review of Poems in Edinburgh Review.

1808. September 6. Catherine, the poet's fourth child, born.

1809. CONCERNING THE RELATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL, TO EACH OTHER, AND TO THE COMMON ENEMY, AT THIS CRISIS; AND SPECIFICALLY AS AFFECTED BY THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA: the whole brought to the test of those principles by which alone the Independence and Freedom of Nations can be

Preservea or Recovered. By William Wordsworth.
Longman, Hurst, Rees and Órme. 8vo.

London,

Letter in The Friend, signed Mathetes (Chr. North), on the subject of Youth and Experience. Wordsworth published in The Friend an anonymous Reply to Mathetes. The correspondence will be found in Grosart's edition of the Prose Works, 1876, volume II. 1810. May 12. William, the poet's fifth and youngest child, born. February 22. ESSAY ON EPITAPHS in The Friend. SELECT VIEWS IN CUMBERLAND, WESTMORELAND, AND LANCASHIRE. By Rev. Joseph Williamson. Twelve numbers in one folio. The Letter-press was by Wordsworth, and was reprinted in the River Duddon volume as 'A Topographical Description of the Country of the Lakes."

In the autumn of this year Wordsworth and Coleridge became estranged.

1812. Thomas and Catherine, two young children of the poet, died at Grasmere Parsonage, where their parents were living for a while. 1813. The Wordsworths left Grasmere Parsonage for Rydal Mount, Grasmere.

The poet was appointed Distributor of Stamps for the County of Westmoreland, to which Cumberland was afterwards added, through the interest of Lord Lonsdale.

1814. THE EXCURSION, being a portion of the Recluse, a Poem. By William Wordsworth. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. 4to.

October. Review of The Excursion in Quarterly Review (by
Charles Lamb).

November. Review of The Excursion in Edinburgh Review (by
Lord Jeffrey).

1815. POEMS, by William Wordsworth, including Lyrical Ballads, and the
Miscellaneous Pieces of the Author, with additional Poems, a new
Preface, and a supplementary Essay. In two volumes. London,
Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. In this edition the
distinctive classification by moods was for the first time adopted.
THE WHITE DOE OF RYLSTONE; or, the Fate of the Nortons. A
Poem. By William Wordsworth. London, Longman, Hurst,
Rees, Orme & Brown. 4to.

February. Review of The Excursion in Monthly Review.
October. Review of The White Doe in Edinburgh Review.

October. Reviews of Poems and The White Doe in Quarterly
Review.

November. Reviews of Poems and The White Doe in Monthly
Review.

1816. A LETTER TO A FRIEND OF ROBERT BURNS: occasioned by an intended republication of the account of the Life of Burns, by Dr Currie; and of the selection made by him from his Letters. By William Wordsworth. London, Longman. 8vo.

THANKSGIVING ODE, January 18, 1816. With other Short Poems, chiefly referring to Recent Public Events. By William Wordsworth. London, Longman.

1817. Biographia Literaria; or, Biographical Sketches of a Literary Life and Opinions. By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (Edito Princebs). Two vols. London.